The sponsor of Senate-approved FISMA reform, Tom Carper, says it's not a done deal because the House has a dispute over which committee - Homeland Security or Oversight and Governmental Reform - has jurisdiction over the legislation.
Barring a catastrophic cyberattack in the next few days to motivate legislators to act, don't expect lawmakers to vote on any cybersecurity bill for the remainder of the current Congress.
Put together, two IRS audits illustrate a major concern many security pros have about FISMA audits: They're checklists of whether organizations comply with regulations that require specific processes but do not determine if the processes are effective.
The logjam in Congress on passing significant cybersecurity legislation could be broken when Republicans assume control of the Senate next year. Here's why.
A Senate committee has approved legislation to reform the 12-year-old law that governs federal information security, plus two other cybersecurity-related bills. The full Senate will now consider the measures.
Effective risk management requires involvement of an organization's top leader; the resignation of Eric Shinseki as secretary of Veterans Affairs means that the VA likely will continue to struggle to comply with federal requirements for IT security.
Legislation before the House to excise from federal law the requirement that NIST work with the NSA on cybersecurity standards wouldn't likely stop the two federal agencies from continuing to collaborate.
As the number of cybersecurity incidents increase, departments and agencies are doing a better job of complying with the law that governs IT security in the U.S. federal government, a new report to Congress from the White House says.
While preparing a speech to be delivered in Korea, NIST's Ron Ross wanted to convey the message of the importance of computer security. He hit on five themes - threat, assets, complexity, integration and trustworthiness - which form the acronym TACIT.
Jeh Johnson, the new secretary of Homeland Security, is expected to become one of the top advocates of the administration's cybersecurity policy as the White House shifts more IT security responsibilities to DHS.
The latest FISMA audit of the Department of Homeland Security furnishes fodder for both sides of the argument over whether Congress should codify Obama administration actions that have granted DHS sway over other federal civilian agencies.
The White House is intensifying its effort to get federal agencies to adopt continuous monitoring and move away from the paper-based checklist compliance they've followed for a decade under the Federal Information Security Management Act.
Jeh Johnson, at his confirmation hearing to be the next Homeland Security secretary, pledges to fix internal cybersecurity problems at DHS before seeking further authority to have the department help other agencies get their IT security houses in order.
With Congress back in Washington, lawmakers are focused on Syria, the federal budget and the debt limit. So cybersecurity is taking a backseat. Will that situation change soon?
The Federal Information Security Amendments Act would require agencies to continuously monitor their IT systems for cyberthreats and implement regular threat assessments.
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